The

livered by Garrick with singular exertion. strong intelligence of his eye, the animated expression of his whole countenance, the flexibility of his voice, and his spirited action, rivetted the attention of an admiring audience. Of all the soliloquies in this favourite play, in the speaking of which, I think, he most excelled, and which afforded him the amplest room to display his varied excellencies, was that which he spoke at the end of the second act, beginning thus,

O what a wretch, and peasant slave, am 1!

CHAPTER VIII.

Prelude to the revolt of the comedians of Drury-lane......Fleetwood's character and conduct...... Account of his favourite diversions and companions......Farms the theatre to his treasurer......! .Mr. Garrick and several of the players secede from Drury-lane.....Their application to the lord chamberlain.....Their petition rejected.....Contest between Garrick and Macklin.....Theatrical storm.....Tancred and Sigismunda.....Mr. Garrick and Mrs. Cibber.

SUCH

UCH an actor as Garrick, whose name, when announced in the play-bills, operated like a charm, and drew multitudes to the theatre, of consequence considerably augmented the profits of the patentee.

But at the time when, in outward appearance, all was gay and splendid, and the theatre of Drury-lane seemed to be in the most flourishing condition; by the strange and absurd conduct of the manager, the whole fabrick was absolutely running into certain destruction.

Before I relate the immediate causes which brought on a revolt of the principal actors, with Mr. Garrick and Mr. Macklin at their head, it will be proper to take a view of the patentee's character and conduct. Charles Fleetwood, Esq., was a gentleman of an ancient and respectable family, possessed of a large paternal estate. His person was genteel, and his manner elegant. His acquaintance, in the early part of life, with certain persons of rank and distinction, proved fatal to him; they drew him into many

fashionable irregularities and excesses; they gave him an unlucky and extravagant habit for play. Amongst those who are addicted to gaming, there are many young men of family and fortune, who are imprudent and undesigning; they generally fall a prey to the artful, the avaricious, and fraudulent: the betrayed, in their turns, become the betrayers; nor from this censure was Mr. Fleetwood exempted.

With the remains of his fortune he was persuaded, by some of his acquaintance, to purchase the greatest part of Drury-lane patent. He fortunately bought at a time when the proprietors, by a run of ill success, were become weary of their bargain, and willing to sell cheap what they had bought at a high price. They had weakly fallen out with the most esteemed of their players, on account of a small advance in salary, which they had demanded; the sum in dispute did not, I believe, much exceed 400l. per annum. The actors revolted, and opened the little theatre in the Hay-market with some appearance of success.

Fleetwood brought back the seceders, and united the two companies of Drury-lane and the Hay-market. When this was accomplished, he tried all methods to strengthen his troop, by gaining some actors of merit from Covent-garden theatre, with large and unusual offers. Mr. Quin was persuaded to leave his old master Rich, under whose theatrical banners he had fought twenty years, for the advantageous income of 500l., a salary till then unknown in any English theatre. This was, indeed, to him an annual increase of 2001.; but it must be confessed that Quin offered to remain in his old station for a

less sum than that which Fleetwood offered to give him; but Rich refused the proposal, and declared that no actor was worth more than 300l. per annum.

For some years, by the prudent advice of the principal players, more especially, I believe, of Mr. Charles Macklin, who was the only player I ever heard of, that made acting a science; and the unremitted labours of this actor, Quin, Clive, Pritchard, and some others, the theatre at Drury-lane was in a state of considerable credit, and generally filled with the choicest company. But it was impossible to restrain so irregular and expensive a man as the patentee within the bounds of prudence and economy. After he had happily been obliged to forsake the practice of high play, and had deserted Arthur's,* he was seized with an unaccountable passion for low diversion, and took a strange delight in the company of the meanest of the human species. This man of genteel address and polite manners conceived a peculiar fondness for the professors of the art of boxing; his time was divided between sturdy athleticks and ridiculous buffoons; between Broughton, James, and Taylor, the most eminent of our boxers, and the tumblers of Sadler's-Wells; the heroick combatants of Hockley in the Hole and the Bear-garden graced the patentee's levee almost every morning.

Some time before Mr. Garrick's engagement with this manager, he had brought all the inmates of Sadler's-Wells upon his stage, and entertained the publick with sights of tall monsters and contemptible rope-dancers.

Generally called White's Chocolate House.

Such a conductor of a theatre was unequal to the task of displaying to advantage the talents of a Garrick, or the humour of a Clive: or, indeed, of furnishing any rational entertainment for an enlightened publick. The profits which arose from the acting of his best plays were appropriated to his favourite amusements. The theatre was farmed to one Pierson, his treasurer, who had lent large sums of money to the manager. This fellow considered the merits of the best actors in no other view than as they contributed to the payment of his loan; the just and legal demands of the actors were treated by him with insolence and contempt: he was civil to Mr. Garrick, indeed, because he hoped, by his acting, to get back the money he had risqued upon the patent.

In this distracted state of Fleetwood's management, the ill treatment of the players seemed to call aloud for redress. Bailiffs were often in possession of the theatre; and the properties, cloaths, and other stage ornaments of the comedians, were sometimes seized upon by these low implements of the law. Many ridiculous contests and foolish squabbles between the actors and these licensed harpies might here be recorded for the readers amusement; I shall content myself with relating one of them. The hat of King Richard the Third, by being adorned with jewels of paste, feathers, and other ornaments, seemed, to the sheriff's officers, a prey worthy of their seizure; but honest Davy, Mr. Garrick's Welch servant, told them, they did not know what they were about; "For, look you," said Davy, "that hat belougs to the king." The fellows imagining that